Xiaomi, one of the biggest smartphone makers in the world, took the PC business by surprise a few days ago when it announced that it would start working on a new laptop.
Now it is working on it and plans to come up with something similar to the MacBook, not so much in price but in design. Richard Lee, who was interviewed by Taipei Times earlier today, confirmed that his company is working on the first notebook for Xiaomi.
The subsidiary, which assembles Xiaomi’s  popular smartphones, is working on the design and manufacture of their first ever laptop. In the interview, he also confirmed that shipping of the upcoming notebook would start in the first or second quarter of next year.
Rumors say that the company plans to release a 15 inch notebook with Linux OS. The price is not known but when Xiaomi made its first announcement, several tech sites reported that their laptop would compete with the MacBook and come at half the price. According to several leaks, the laptop is said to look like the MacBook Air.
PC Market and Specs of Xiaomi Notebook
Xiaomi has been focusing on its entry to India but many rumors in the past had it joining the PC market. 
Rumors have also said the company would skip on Windows and give Linux a chance. But some are not so sure about that anymore and they believe Xiaomi could be considering Windows since the latest version just came out a few weeks ago.
GizmoChina just leaked images of what appeared to be a Xiaomi laptop along with the specs. The leak has it by the name of Xiaomi Notebook and it looks similar to the MacBook Air, which will be its biggest competitor when it hits the market sometime next year. Now on to the specs, the laptop from Xiaomi is said to come with a 15 inch HD display. The RAM is rumored to be 16 GB, but the most impressive part of all this is that the notebook is expected to be under $499, less than half of what the MacBook Air goes for. Bloomberg added that Xiaomi is currently talking to other companies for memory chips and displays.
Mi 4c, Korean Market and 2015 Goal
Xiaomi is also focusing on the release of the Mi 4c, which recently became official and will be an improvement over the version released in India, the Mi 4i. The device is coming to China but many think the device will soon be sold in other places.
That’s not all, Xiaomi is now looking to make an impact on the Korean market. They held an event there a few days ago and pretty much showed their interest for the market, encouraging those who attended to create MIUI-based apps.
Xiaomi is popular for its smartphones and sold 60 million of them in China last year, their goal is to sell 80 million by the end of 2015. Will the company have the same success on the PC market? Let us know in the comments.
